


Eclipse

by nebulera



Series: of beasts [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, Imperial Era, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24400552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulera/pseuds/nebulera
Summary: “Come with me.”
Relationships: Darth Maul/CT-7567 | Rex
Series: of beasts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2021009
Comments: 17
Kudos: 78





	Eclipse

It’s after Rex starts the ship that he feels the cold breeze from outside brush over his skin. One look back from the cockpit and as he suspects, Maul isn’t behind him and the entrance doors are wide open, the wind slowly edging its way inside. Goosebumps form on Rex’s skin, from the cold or from the sinking feeling in his chest he isn’t sure.

He pulls his poncho tight around himself as he descends the ramp. Maul’s figure comes into view; he’s standing only a few feet from the ship, his back to Rex. His hands lay limp at his side with unfurled fingers as opposed to the tight-closed fists of the reckless Sith crime lord he distantly remembers. He stands right before the sun, a dark shadow blocking the light with a glow surrounding him. Though bold like an eclipse, he stands almost defenseless. He looks not weak to Rex: he looks lost. The sun is setting beyond the horizon and the sky shifts from blue to orange. It’s only getting colder.

“You’re letting a breeze in, love. Are you coming?”

Maul doesn’t visibly react, his back still to Rex. “Close the doors, then. I’ll be only a moment.”

It’s not a debate in Rex’s mind if he should actually do so, so he doesn’t. Maul’s strange body language is making Rex uneasy. When he meditates, he stands or sits more reserved; Rex knows when he’s deep in his own head versus the Force. He knows from being around Maul and his Jedi. Now, he looks indecisive.

If Maul were to leave him, he’d do it discreetly. He’d do it in the dead of night, without word or goodbye, and he’d leave Rex thinking it’s for the best when he’s truly leaving a caving hole in his chest. The both know being with each other is a double-edged sword: Maul brings Inquisitors wherever he goes, and even though more and more time passes with every one that follows, they always end up finding him, eventually. But Maul protects him, and he protects Maul. Logic begs them to part but Rex finds he can’t.

Maul’s hesitation to head inside the ship only grows, and Rex feels the distance between them widen with every second. Not seeing his face is what’s tearing at Rex’s heart; he can’t read his eyes and declare what Maul will do next.

Rex closes the distance between them, pressing himself against Maul’s back with his hands crossed over his front. Two hearts pounded beneath them.

“You’re warm,” Rex says after finding his voice. “You run hotter than we do.”

Maul doesn’t respond, but he brings his own hands to rest over Rex’s in that protective way he does as they fall asleep. He knows Maul doesn’t come to these things easily. Touch and adoration are a foreign concept he is trying to learn, and Rex is patient. He is not perfect either; he must learn the way as well. He can’t do that without Maul at his side. He’ll freeze out here before he lets Maul go.

“Come with me,” he whispers. He kisses Maul’s neck above his own hooded scarf. He pulls out one of his hands to find and graze across the vambrace on Maul’s forearm, the one Rex had given him.

Maul finally relaxes his tense form and he turns around. Rex gives a mental sigh of relief. Any conflict in his eyes has gone and he looks at Rex with that tolerating gaze that isn’t without fondness. He continues to hold onto him until the sun sets, and the bitter breeze becomes unbearable. 

“Come keep me warm,” Rex says, making his way up the ramp. He doesn’t turn around to make sure Maul is behind him: he knows he is.

…

Maul senses it before he _feels_ it, the way the Force turns dark and shifts dangerously. It passes through like the burn of a lightsaber, his body going completely cold. He stops dead. Goosebumps invade his skin, and he holds onto his lightsaber like an anchor.

He unabashedly feels the sinking feeling of fear grab hold of him. Even worse when he turns around and finds that the captain is not directly behind him, but back up the ramp of the base they’d just escaped, where this planet ended and the Empire began.

His back is to Maul, and he can feel as he’s running back to him the awful conflict he’s experiencing in his mind: to turn back with Maul or to run inside to confront the very thing that’s left Maul with shaking fingers as fear sets his skin ablaze.

“Captain,” Maul calls to him. He hopes his voice would bring Rex out of whatever trance he is in and back to the present. It does not, and Maul stands there uselessly like the space between him and the captain is a landmine.

At this very moment, Maul regrets all those years ago, telling Ahsoka Tano of Anakin Skywalker’s descent. In telling her, he’d told Rex, and it had been an intentionally avoided topic between them, other than one outburst that left a tension there that has never been resolved. Darth Vader’s rise coinciding with the fall of the Jedi only aided his argument: that he and Skywalker were one in the same. As it was, Rex wouldn't hear about it. He, like Tano, vehemently denied the truth. Through all this time, he believed his general had died.

So Maul is clueless as to why Rex would not follow him now.

“He’s in there,” Rex states, blankly, his head tilted close to the ground.

“Yes,” Maul says. “That is why we must go.”

He looks down. One of his hands unconsciously shot out towards the captain, but with his back to Maul he did not see.

Rex is silent. The alarms of the base blare loudly, and Maul feels the cold of his old master’s apprentice seep further into him the closer he gets.

“Rex,” Maul pleads, not caring about the desperate sound of his voice.

This time, the captain does turn around. He looks down at Maul and his outstretched hand but does not close the distance between them. His eyes are determined, but sad.

“If I go, would you stop me?” Rex asks, like this is the determining factor. 

It would break that trust they had built. It would feel like a betrayal to Rex, but he would do it. He would freeze him and force him to sleep before carrying him away. Rex would hate him, but he would be alive.

“Yes,” Maul says.

Rex’s face crumbles. “He’s my general,” he says with absolute undeniability. Now that the truth is at his reach, he can’t put it off any longer. He’s pleading with Maul to let him go, but he won’t. “I can’t leave him.”

“It’s not Skywalker anymore.” Rex looks over his shoulder at where Vader would be soon, where Rex would confront him and that would be it. “He’s a Sith Lord and apprentice to my old master. I can’t protect you from him!”

“I’m not asking for your protection.”

“Don’t be a fool. You’re asking me to leave you, and I can’t do that.”

Rex looks back from over his shoulder and again at Maul’s outstretched arm, looks at the blue and white vambrace, before reaching across and touching his own. “Maul, I will always be with you.”

“No!” Maul growls in anger before calming himself. He closes the distance between them instead, every step a necessary pain. He takes Rex’s hands between his own. From here, he can see the weariness in Rex’s eyes that he’s not seen until now. He’s an old soldier, a warrior in every right, cast aside, and through heart and soul been graced with a greater fate than that of his brothers.

“You once asked me not to leave and now I ask you,” Maul says, his thoughts wandering to the unnamed planet with cold nights, a body pressed against him and protective hands over his hearts.

Rex still does not move. Conflict wracks him. His duty to his general is an unending turmoil that is both a product of his birth and a friendship cut short. Only he knows Vader is unhinged. Seeing each other would only worsen their divide, and Rex would be gone.

Voices begin to emerge from the base behind him. Blurs of white run out towards them, and Maul can feel the Dark Lord getting closer and closer. The thread between them is being strung thin.

“Come with me,” Maul begs, his voice twisting in pain. “ _Please.”_

Rex meets his eyes. Only a second more of hesitation and then Rex cuts the thread and nods. With the universe righting itself, Maul grips his hand and they turn and run.

They escape towards their ship, their home, with the Empire and Vader far behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> yay or nay


End file.
